investigating perceptions and potential of open badges in formal higher education
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INVESTIGATING PERCEPTIONS AND POTENTIAL OF OPEN BADGES IN FORMAL HIGHER EDUCATION
Dr. Ian Glover, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Farzana Latif, City University London, UK
WHAT IS A BADGE?
Visual representation of achievement, experience, affiliation and/or interest - ideally distinctive and understood within a community.
Some examples:
“Badges mean nothing in themselves, but they
mark a certain achievement and they are a
link between the rich and the poor.
For when one girl sees a badge on a sister Scout’s
arm, if that girl has won the same badge, it at
once awakens an interest and
sympathy between them.”
- Juliette G. Low,
Founder of Girl Scouts of the USA
WHAT IS AN OPEN BADGE?
o Many apps, websites and organisations issue badges, but they are all separate o Open Badges attempt to draw all these into one (free) place
o Include links to criteria and evidence
o Add security and verification o can check whether a person was actually awarded a specific
badge
o Allow 'clusters' of badges to be shared with others
o Basically, an image + related data
Open Badges Anatomy (Updated) by Kyle Bowen.
CC-BY-SA.
WHY IS THERE A BUZZ ABOUT THEM?
o Growing recognition that learning happens outside the classroom
o Grade transcripts hide the truth about learning
o Strong links with current trends such as MOOCs, Gamification, Mobile Learning o but can be used independently of these
EXAMPLE OPEN BADGES
WHAT DID WE DO IN OUR PROJECT?
o Semi-structured interviews with staff o Whole institution
o Focus groups with students o Health Sciences and Engineering
o None had prior knowledge of badges in HE o but some were aware of other uses
o Intended to identify perception and value o recommendation on whether to continue work
WHAT DID WE FIND?
o Students want to use badge to stand out from peers
o Desire to link badges to requirements of professional accreditation
o Important not to issue too many - each badge must represent genuine achievement
WHAT ELSE DID WE FIND?
o Badges would act as a motivator o would push students to go beyond the minimum
o would support both individualistic and competitive goal structures
o Students would use them when applying for jobs or further study o Helped to recall their development and the skills that they
had developed
o staff would use them when writing references
COMMON CRITICISMS (AND HOW WE ADDRESSED THEM AFTERWARDS)
o "Childish" o plan and design them to be meaningful
o "Hard to design without skills" o simple, free tools available
o "Lack of consistency in use" o set a policy about the requirements for a badge
SOME MORE CRITICISMS
o "Not credible with, for example, employers"
o involve employers in the design of badges
o "I get it, but my students/lecturers won't"
o didn't appear true through the interviews
o "This could become another assessment route"
o ideally it should reflect what is already happening
POTENTIAL USES
o Showing competency in a skill, o e.g. nursing students taking blood samples
o Recognising extra-curricular activity o e.g. a music student participating in an orchestra,
o Representing co-curricular development o e.g. participation in Students' Union or Student Council
activities
MORE POTENTIAL USES
o Identifying common themes in a programme
o e.g. showing all modules that develop debating skills
o Validating informal learning
o e.g. certifying a specific standard has been met
o Enabling students to differentiate themselves
o e.g. highlighting specialisms within a programme
Indiana Jones and the lost badge by Kyle Bowen.
CC-BY-SA
GETTING STARTED
o Image creation o OpenBadges.me (http://openbadges.me)
o Online Badge Maker (http://www.onlinebadgemaker.com/)
o Badge creation and issuing o badg.us (http://badg.us)
o All-in-one system o Credly (http://credly.com)
STILL GETTING STARTED
o Educational platforms introducing badges
o Moodle (from 2.6)
o Blackboard (from latest Service Pack)
o Mahara
o PebblePad
o Wordpress
o etc.
o Central, common 'backpack' (https://backpack.openbadges.org)
CONTACT US
Dr. Ian Glover
email - i.glover@shu.ac.uk
blog - http://blogs.shu.ac.uk/telteam
Farzana Latif
email - f.latif@city.ac.uk
twitter - @farzanalatif
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